Abigail Klein Leichman
February 22, 2017, Updated February 27, 2017

Specific foods and food combinations affect each individual’s blood-sugar level differently, it was revealed last year by the Personalized Nutrition Project, a clinical study carried out in Israel.

Already available in Israel and soon in the United States, DayTwo is the world’s first health-improvement and disease-prevention solution based on the groundbreaking gut microbiome research of Prof. Eran Segal and Dr. Eran Elinav from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Both scientists are involved in the company, located in Adanim near Hod Hasharon.

The gut microbiome – bacteria residing in everyone’s intestines – interacts with the digestive and immune systems, and its diversity holds certain clues. DayTwo and the Weizmann researchers developed an algorithm for predicting individualized blood-glucose response to thousands of different foods and meals based on gut microbiome information and other personal parameters.

DayTwo cofounder and CEO Lihi Segal. Photo: courtesy
DayTwo cofounder and CEO Lihi Segal. Photo: courtesy

Cofounder and CEO Lihi Segal explains how the DayTwo process works.

“You come online to our site and go through the registration process where you fill in a questionnaire about your medical history, physical characteristics, lifestyle and diet. We then FedEx the kit to you.”

The DayTwo kit contains instructions for taking a small stool sample and sending it to DayTwo’s lab, where the DNA of your body’s microbiome is sequenced using next-generation metagenomics. That data is plugged into an advanced machine-learning algorithm.

In about six to eight weeks, you will receive your microbiome report and a mobile (initially only iOS) or web application where you can access, for six months, personalized recommendations on meals that help you balance your blood sugar.

Rate your meal

“It’s not a list of ingredients because the body doesn’t work that way,” says Segal. “For example, pasta with meatballs and pasta with cream sauce may have different effects.”

If you want to build your own meals, the app rates foods from A+ to C- so you can see easily which combinations are better for you than others. It will even help you evaluate fast-food or restaurant meals.

“Our target audience is pre-diabetics and diabetics who are not insulin dependent, as well as healthy people who are interested in balancing blood-sugar levels” says Segal, who was previously COO and CFO of Sisense, an Israeli provider of business intelligence and analytics software.

She explains that the name of the company “alludes to the journey to better health that you are taking with us.”

US launch

Ahead of DayTwo’s American launch later this quarter, pre-orders are being accepted online at an introductory price of $299.

The 20-employee company received a license for the technology in August 2015 and scaled up quickly with the financial backing of angel investor Marius Nacht, cofounder and chairman of Check Point Software Technologies. DayTwo is now in the midst of a Series A financing round.

Last December, DayTwo announced a clinical trial in collaboration with the Microbiome Program at the Mayo Clinic Center of Individualized Medicine in Minnesota to help calibrate the predictive algorithm for the US market.

And in February 2017, DayTwo and the Weizmann Institute scientists began collaborating with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Research & Development Company, to evaluate DayTwo’s platform for the effective interception of gestational diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome-associated disorders.

“We believe Janssen’s experience in developing diagnostic and therapeutic products will help us introduce new and groundbreaking innovations that promote individual health,” said Segal.

Because the gut microbiome can change over the course of months or years, DayTwo is studying the need to retest after a certain period, Segal adds.

Subscription plan

DayTwo offers a monthly subscription model offering users additional features beyond the one-time report and six months of app usage.

“Once you have your personalized recommendations we want you to be able to share your results with everybody who touches nutrition in your life, such as your employee wellness program, your dietician and doctor,” explains Segal.

“So we’re building a business-to-business marketplace for other services to use our predictive engine for their clients. You’ll have a total solution and total control over who you share your data with.”

For example, you might be able to log into the website of your favorite takeout eatery through DayTwo and order dishes according to your personalized ratings.

DayTwo will have a US office for sales and marketing, and plans to expand sales to additional countries in the future. Segal pledges to keep R&D in Israel.

For more information, click here.

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